While fans of Real Madrid and Barcelona are happy with the current state of Spanish football, fans and players are of the other La Liga sides are not so enthused. Does any doubt that the title race will once again be a two team race and that the rest of the league is playing for third place?
In a recent interview with SPORT.es, Valencia midfielder David Albelda warned that the distance between Real Madrid, Barcelona and the rest of the teams in La Liga is growing and that a club like Valencia would do “great things” with the money it is said that Madrid is willing to pay for Tottenham player Luka Modric.
“This year Barcelona has taken Jordi Alba from us for big money and Madrid is now also spending big to get Modric. There is talk of 30 or 40 million and we would do wonders with it” said Albelda from Valencia’s training camp in Germany.
“Seen from the outside we are all lagging behind Madrid and Barcelona, they are the only ones able to continue investing and improving their squad whilst being able to spend 10, 15, 20 or even 30 million on players” he added.
Nevertheless, the midfielder said he does not want the fans “to understand this as a pessimistic message.
“We start the league every year thinking about catching up to them, and this year will be no different,”
Albelda said that although this will be his fifteenth season at the club he still faces the new season: “with the same enthusiasm as always,”
He also spoke of the arrival to the club of Fernando Gago, who plays in the same position as he does.
“In Valencia you cannot pretend not to have competition. We are all fighting for the same goal, but we are partners not rivals. I welcome Gago. I wish him well and hope all our new signings have many opportunities to give their best. This is an elite club, you expect competition for places” he said.
Regarding Mauricio Pellegrino, with whom he worked with as a player and now as his new coach, said that:
“He was fantastic as a player, and as a coach is now very involved in every action, everything is done with a sense of expectation, and he wants to get the best out of the team.”
At some point Real Madrid and Barcelona will realize that they have to share the wealth, especially from TV, with the other teams in La Liga. If they don’t at some point Spanish football will turn into Scotland, where two teams dominated for the last three decades, killing the sport in that country.
